Texarkana College Music Department Home to Distinguished Faculty

From the halls of Texarkana College to the corridors of famed Carnegie Hall, members of Texarkana College’s music faculty are accomplished musicians, performers and instructors widely recognized for their talent on the national and international level.

“Students in TC’s music program learn from world-class instructors who have performed on some of the world’s most prestigious stages,” said Mary Ellen Young, Dean of Liberal and Performing Arts. “The line-up of talent within our music department faculty is unmatched in our region, providing students with excellent instruction in music performance, and composition, as well as the foundations of music theory and history.”

Full-time music faculty members at TC include Marc-André Bougie, Conductor for Texarkana Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and Conductor for Texarkana Regional Chorale, and Mary Scott Goode, nationally recognized pianist. Acclaimed vocal coach and performer Janice Aiken will join the team as an adjunct vocal instructor beginning this fall. Her addition brings a depth of experience in voice, diction, stage direction, and opera along with technical and business leadership to TC’s music department.

“I am so pleased that TC is at the forefront of providing quality vocal instruction to our community,” said Bougie. “I have worked with Janice through the years in collaboration with the Shreveport Opera and always hoped we could work together in the future.”

Aiken’s accomplishments include serving as an artistic consultant, vocal coach and stage director for the Shreveport Opera young artists’ program and teaching private voice lessons. Aiken’s credits also include co-creating and directing the Opera Memphis Summer Conservatory dedicated to introducing teens to the vocal, musical and stagecraft requirements of Opera and Operetta. Aiken’s performing career includes more than 25 leading opera roles, including premieres of the off-Broadway production of Rasputin by Terry Quinn and a tour of Michael Ching’s Corp of Discovery. She received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and her Masters of Music in vocal performance from the University of Memphis.

Aiken has helped numerous students earn acceptance into prestigious music programs, including Julliard, Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, The Art of Acting Studio – Los Angeles, University of Michigan and University of Texas at Austin. In addition, many of Aiken’s students have gone on to perform professionally with notable opera companies.

“I am so excited to have such a wonderful, knowledgeable, professional singer on our faculty,” Goode said. “Janice has all the range of experience and skills singers need: technique, languages, acting and she is devoted to passing these skills on to students. She has worked with persons of all ages and training from professional opera singers to school age children, and adult choristers. She will bring a new level of quality to the TC Music Department.”

For more information on TC’s music department, visit texarkanacollege.edu/study/music/.